Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has set its thermal coal benchmark price (HBA) for December at USD 66.30 per metric ton (MT) — a slight increase from the previous month, stated Agung Pribadi, an official spokesperson of the ministry while addressing a press statement.
Notably, this current reference price is higher by 0.4% on a month-to-month basis, as compared to USD 65.27/MT in the previous month of November 2019.
However, it is lower by 28.3 % on a year-on-year basis, as compared to USD 92.51/MT in the month of December 2018.
The Indonesian thermal coal benchmark price has mostly declined every month since September 2018, hitting a record low at USD 64.80/MT in October. But then, it gradually rose in the past two months. In August 2018, the HBA had hit a record high of USD 107.83/MT.
Even so, Bambang Gatot Ariyono, director general of mineral and coal at the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (ESDM) has said that the country’s coal production target of 530 million metric tons (MnT) for this year would be attainable, although it is much lower than the actual production of 557 MnT last year.
The HBA price for thermal coal, locally known as Harga Batubara Acuan, is the basis for determining the prices of 77 Indonesian coal products and calculating the royalty required to be paid by miners for each metric ton of coal sold.
It is based on 6,322 kcal/kg GAR coal with 8% total moisture content, 15% ash and 0.8% sulfur as received.
Leave a Reply